weird email on order status

Our purchasing guy received this email from a company we deal with often: :?: :?:
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Dear Ed,
I want to take this opportunity to inform you that we are currently experiencing a manufacturing delay for your configured system. This system was originally scheduled to ship on or before [b:eeba8d6d69]23-Mar[/b:eeba8d6d69]. At this time, our manufacturing planners are anticipating a new estimated ship date of [b:eeba8d6d69]12-Mar[/b:eeba8d6d69], though we are actively working to improve this date if possible.
I sincerely apologize for this delay and any inconvenience we have caused. I will continue to monitor your order’s status and will let you know of any new updates.
Please let me know if I can be of any further assistance.
Reference:
Order Number: -----
Your Purchase Order Number: ----
Best regards,

[name deleted]
Sales Operations Planning Coordinator
[company deleted]
[phone # deleted]
Please Note: Replies to this email are actively monitored and will be addressed as quickly as possible, should you require any additional information regarding this delay at any time.

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I suggested we reply with a nasty email saying "this is unacceptable" just to see their reaction. :lol:

Sounds like a company with the majority of the people that speak English as a second language. Many if them really do not have a true understanding of the language.

OR maybe it is a computer generated letter that is sent when a ship date is changed after an order is placed. Since most of the time a changed ship date is later not sooner the programed letter may only show it being later.

I got one kinda like that last week.Told me my
company order was a week late.I don't have a
company and I never placed an order.Scam.

I am sure that the letter is generated automatically when a new ship date is entered into the system. You would think, though, that the programmers would have coded it so that it only sends the letter if the new ship date is LATER than the original. :lol:

But, the thing that made us laugh the most was the comment "I will continue to monitor your order’s status". I don't think the guy is even aware of the specific order. It's probably just an entry on a report somewhere.

It's a "mail-merged" document. The giveaway is the odd date format. They took a spreadsheet or database report and used it to generate a bunch of letters. But somebody forgot to exclude the orders where the original date is actually later than the new delivery date.

JML755:

"I suggested we reply with a nasty email saying
"this is unacceptable" just to see their reaction.
:lol:"

DO IT !!!

I'd be kind of interested to know their reaction
myself. LOL

:>)

That's a slightly new twist. I have received several during the past year, stating, "We need to verify your order." Now,most people would open it just out of curiosity, but since I hadn't ordered anything from anyone, I just deleted it. Sounds like a scam to me.

I would bet the e-mail address does not match up
with the real company's address.
I have got e-mail from a couple of friends, but the
e-mail address does not match with the friends e-
mail address. They always have a link in them
though, so they can cause you all kinds of
problems. I would delete it and not play with them.

Sounds like a Phishing scam... where they make
themselves "look" like a real companies website or
emails to get your personal or credit card
information.

If it was a phishing scam, how would the scammer know the PO number, or even that the recipient had placed an order? If they have access to a company's databases, there are easier ways to monetize that information than to send scam letters to the company's customers.